Michael Kesselring uses a throwback term to describe a Lindy Ruff-led training camp.
“Old school,” the Buffalo Sabres defenseman said.
Kesselring is 25 years old, so his definition of the term may differ from that of his 65-year-old coach. Kesselring is in his first season with the Sabres and quickly gained a solid sense of what preparing for the season under Ruff’s watch entails.
Ruff is in his second season of his second stint as coach of the Sabres but begins his 25th season as an NHL head coach, a run that goes back to his first year with the Sabres in 1997-98.
Ruff has seen and participated in the evolution of training camps, knowing how they once were run and how they currently operate. He also has a perspective of what makes a hockey team chug based on his longevity and his success. Ruff has 900 NHL wins as a head coach, and has been an assistant with Florida and the New York Rangers.
His goal for this year’s training camp with the Sabres is for his team to realize how hard it will have to compete to reach its goals.
“That’s what the practices are built around,” Ruff said Friday, a day before the Sabres host the Detroit Red Wings in a preseason game at 3 p.m. Saturday at KeyBank Center. “Compete and skate. The fitness level is in a pretty good place based on the testing we’ve done, so keeping that level of fitness where it’s at so that we can maintain a high level of play. A consistently high level of play.”
Ruff didn’t have the benefit of a full camp in Buffalo a year ago because his team went to Europe a week into training camp to prepare for season-opening games against the New Jersey Devils in Prague. The full scope of proverbial pain couldn’t be brought.
The Sabres are a week into training camp this year, and the players have felt the force of Ruff’s training camp.
“It’s tough,” said Jacob Bryson, a sixth-year defenseman. “We had some off-ice tests, some on-ice tests, which I’ve never done before, but they were hard.
“Last year was so different. We only had short camp. This year has definitely been harder. But I do think it is for the better. Everyone seems like they’re in good shape.”
Bryson is in his second training camp under Ruff. He wasn’t sure what to expect of the full training camp experience, but learned a few new preseason wrinkles.
“The main thing is, if we can be in better shape than the other teams, I think it goes a long way,” Bryson said.
As for that “old school” label? It’s apt, considering Ruff’s longevity as an NHL coach. Ruff played in the NHL from 1979-91 so he’s seen the evolution of the sport and the innovations of its on-ice and off-ice conditioning and training methods.
“The game’s changing more than it was probably when he was coaching before, but his camp is probably pretty similar to what he did back then,” Bryson said. “A lot of battles, a lot of competing. That’s a big word, ‘compete.’ ‘Skate and compete’ is his theory. That’s two big things, and I think we’ve done that every day, so that’s probably the old-school part of it.
“Our off-ice stuff is pretty tough, too. You put all that together, and we’re going to be one hell of a team that’s in shape.”
Like Kesselring, there are players who haven’t been through a Ruff-run training camp before this September, including defenseman Radim Mrtka, who is in his first NHL camp.
“It’s been hard, so far,” said Mrtka, the Sabres’ first-round NHL draft pick in June. “Learning a system, tactics and just working hard.
“We have a lot of skating and everything we have to do, we just have to do it, as hard as we can, so it’s been very difficult.”
Josh Doan joined the Sabres in June as part of a trade with Kesselring, which sent forward JJ Peterka to Utah.
“We had a couple good bag skates at the end, and I think it’s one of those where it’s a high-compete practice, and that’s what you need,” Doan, a wing, said. “It’s something I enjoy, just battling and playing those kind of games. I’ve had a lot of fun so far, but it’s been really hard and it’s going to make sure we’re all ready to go for the season.”
It’s different from previous training camps Doan has been in with the Arizona Coyotes in 2023 and Utah Mammoth in 2024, but he identified the common thread.
“All these coaches expect a high intensity in these kinds of situations,” Doan said.
Notably, as he said, the number of bag skates – on-ice skating drills that don’t involve pucks that can focus on speed, endurance, quickness or sprinting, or a combination of all.
An emphasis on conditioning has the purpose of building stamina so that at the end of a game, players are still strong. Consider this: The Sabres were 6-28-2 in games in which they trailed after the second period last season and 7-8-3 in games in which they were tied after the second period. They also gave up 107 goals in the second period and 107 in the third last season, which was 31st and 30th in the NHL, respectively; compared to 68 first-period goals against.
That’s done by design, not just with the start of the season in mind, but the duration of an 82-game season.
“He’s pushing us,” Kesselring said. “I’m excited, because I know I’m going to be in really good shape, once the season starts. It’s good to go through that as a team. It helps build chemistry. We’re all going through that together and grinding through it together.”
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Rachel Lenzi
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